KitchenWise: Essential Food Science for Home Cooks

James Beard Award–winner Corriher (Bakewise) uses science to help readers “spot bad recipes and know how to fix them” in this strong outing. Chapters focus on different food groups and explain the science behind common cooking problems (proteins sticking to cookware), how to fix them (preheat the skillet before adding ingredients), and why the solutions work (“the metal expands, closing some imperfections and creating a hot surface”). There are more than 30 recipes illustrating her techniques, such as an oven-roasted chicken breast that calls for a buttermilk brine because its calcium activates tenderizing enzymes in chicken. She also debunks common kitchen myths—for instance, she argues that some vegetables become more nutritious after they are cooked, such as carrots, whose carotenes, minerals, and vitamin C are more accessible to the body after cooking. There is also a fascinating chapter devoted to the science of taste and flavor, in which she points out, perhaps surprisingly, that adding a bit of salt to food can decrease bitterness and increase sweetness. Cooks of any experience level will walk away from this sharp guide with some new tricks. (Nov.)